“Playing the Novikov game and epilogue”

Special Lecture Series on “Variations on a Theme of Borel” - 3rd Lecture

Over 60 years ago, Borel, on the basis of theorems of Mostow, conjectured a topological rigidity statement that has become central to topology.  During these lectures, I will use his heuristic to suggest other statements, some true, some false, and some conjectural.  Overall, this area is devoted to a profound influence that the fundamental group has on topology and geometry.